April 10 General Meeting Presentation on Photographing Art

Doris Lamontagne will demonstrate photographing visual art and will discuss how to present a polished product. Members will learn about the equipment and techniques Doris uses to photograph and process the images for the best results. In addition to the demonstration, the presentation will include a slideshow as well as a question and answer session. The photography presentation will start at 2:00 pm. Visit Doris Lamontagne and her page on the Bravo Art website http://www.bravoart.org/user-page/itemlist/user/425-dorislamontagne

The General Meeting will be held on Monday, April 10, 2017, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm, Studio 2, Nepean Visual Arts Centre (located at back of Nepean Sportsplex), 1701 Woodroffe Avenue, Ottawa. New members are welcome.

City of Ottawa Archives Gallery 112 Exhibition

Artists and volunteers met at the conclusion of our successful exhibition at the City of Ottawa Archives Gallery 112. The exhibit was well received by the visiting public and artists appreciated the opportunity to show their work in this wonderful public gallery. Thanks to the helpful staff at the City of Ottawa Archives.

Exhibiting Artists and Volunteers from left to right: Kerri Weller, Jette Dapoz, Celia Godkin, Donna Fleras, Barry Matthews (volunteer), Cecelia Martin, Jan Salmon, Inge Legere, Carla Burns (exhibit coordinator), Mary Atkins, Sandra Lindsay, and Ros Allchin

Worldwide Exhibition 2018 -- Art of the Plant

Kerri Weller - Lilium canadense, Canada lily - watercolour on paper

Worldwide Exhibition 2018

Linking People to Plants through Contemporary Botanical Art

Opening May 2018

Botanical Artists from around the world will be celebrating the earth’s precious plant diversity by creating exhibitions featuring plants indigenous to their home regions.  A primary goal of this initiative is to link people around the world to plants through contemporary botanical art. This project was initiated by the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA) Botanical Art Worldwide Exhibition 2018. Countries participating in this event include: Australia; Bermuda; Brazil; Canada; Chile; Costa Rica; France; Germany; India; Italy; Ireland; Japan; the Netherlands; South Africa; New Zealand; Thailand; South Korea; the United Kingdom; and the United Sates of America.

The Art of the Plant Exhibition is Canada’s contribution to this simultaneous worldwide botanical art project. This exhibition opens in May 2018 in Ottawa and online in coordination with other participating countries around the globe. Visit the website and Call for Entry page for further details on this event.  Submissions will be accepted from November 1, 2017, to January 15, 2018.  

OSBA General Meeting

OSBA General Meeting

Monday, November 14, 2016

Time: 1:00 to 4:00

Please join us on Monday afternoon for our meeting, guest lecture and social get-together at the Nepean Visual Arts Centre – Located at the Nepean Sportsplex.

The address is 1701 Woodroffe Avenue.  The NVAC is located at the back at entrance 3.

Note: This time the meeting will be held upstairs in Studio 3 
Near the pottery studios on the 2nd floor
(elevator available)

MEMBERHIP RENEWAL

It is time to renew your membership.  

Please bring your cheque book or cash to the meeting.  Membership fee is $25 annually. 

New Members Welcome

OTHER AGENDA ITEMS

• Nominations and voting for executive positions
• Swap and Trade - Bring in any art supplies that you are not using 

PRESENTATION

"Creating Values with Coloured Pencil" by Jan Salmon

This is an opportunity to work on a small project using coloured pencils.  Here you will learn about creating lights and darks that give your paintings beauty, depth and solidity.   

A limited number of coloured pencils will be supplied, however, members are asked to bring their own if possible, including a colourless blender pencil.  If you have a set of Verithin coloured pencils, bring those as well as your Prismacolour pencils.  Also, please bring hot pressed watercolour paper, 8x10, (plus some scrap) mounted on a masonite board, eraser, sketching pencil, electric pencil sharpener, and a lamp.

OSBA Exhibition

OSBA General Meeting

Ottawa Society of Botanical Artists
General Meeting

Monday, September 12, 2016
Time: 1:00 to 3:30

Please join us on Monday afternoon for our meeting, guest speakers

and social get-together

Bring your latest artwork for display to your colleagues.

Guest Speakers

• Celia Godkin to talk about the 'Hawthorn project'.  She will share her experience of working on this piece.
• Carla Burns will show the results of her light fast test after OSBA's visit to the Paper Conservation Laboratory at the Canadian Museum of History in June. 

Memberships

New members welcome! Sign up at our meeting. $25 member fee annually. 

Location

Nepean Visual Arts Centre (Studio 2) – Located at the Nepean Sportsplex

1701 Woodroffe Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario  

The NVAC is located at the back at entrance 3. 

(For those who have taken classes with Kerri – the meeting is in the same room.)

Paper Conservatory Tour, Canadian Museum of History

OSBA Members from left to right: Claudia Burns, Julie Hughes, Janet Marshall, Donna Fleras, Hilary Casey, Barry Matthews, Cecilia Martin, Sarah Iley, Ros Allchin, and Carla Burns

 A group of OSBA Members participated in a tour of the Paper Conservatory at the Canadian Museum of History on Tuesday, June 7, 2016.  Our host for this event was OSBA member Julie Hughes a recently retired Textile Conservator.  Julie explained the importance of conservation and gave us an overview of the process that occurs when selecting an item for display as well as ongoing conservation efforts. 

Our guide for the tour escorted our group through the service corridors and explained how this part of the museum was designed.  The area has special isolation rooms to ensure that contaminants are not introduced into the main collection.  The hallways and loading areas were designed to accommodate large totem poles – how uniquely Canadian.  At one point, we had a brief glimpse of Napoléon’s bed as it was being carefully moved on a large flat-bed trolley for the upcoming exhibit -- and yes, it was majestic.

Once we arrived in the Paper Conservatory, we were introduced to Conservator Amanda who explained the importance of using archival quality materials when creating artwork.  She discussed the properties of paper and environmental factors that affect the integrity of artwork such as temperature, light and humidity.  Amanda then showed us a project to test the lightfastness of various media including materials commonly used in creating botanical art such as watercolour and coloured pencils.  This lightfast test could easily be replicated at home and will be the subject of a future post.

We then moved to another room where artwork is mounted and prepared for display.  Curator Paul explained how to properly mount artwork to mat boards and where to use linen and Japanese hinging tape.  He also discussed the importance of using acid-free archival quality products and protective glass/plastic.  Paul then explained the optimal formula for hanging artwork -- centre of artwork should be 54” to 60” from the floor.  This height focuses the viewer’s attention on the image not the patterns created by the frames.  We were shown mounting hardware as well as a demonstration on how to measure and position artwork on walls.  Tour participants’ questions were welcomed and some interesting information was exchanged. 

Paul showed us the judge's robe of Hugh Richardson who sentenced Louis Riel to death for treason on July 31, 1885.  The robe is now dark green, most likely there were some fugitive colours in the original black mixture – probably a red hue.

As we were finishing the tour, several OSBA members remarked how interesting being a Museum Conservator would be and what important work they do.  OSBA members would like to thank the Conservation Department at the Canadian Museum of History as well as OSBA member Julie Hughes for organizing this wonderful field trip.

OSBA Members from left to right: Claudia Burns, Julie Hughes, Janet Marshall, Donna Fleras, Hilary Casey, Inga Legere,  Cecilia Martin, Sarah Iley, and Ros Allchin